Sermon over Genesis 32:3-32 - Wrestling with God

This Sunday (August 6th) the sermon was over Genesis 32:3-32, the story of Jacob wrestling with whatever the entity was that he wrestled with next to the Jakkob River.  There are nearly endless commentaries on this piece of Scripture and a multitude of ideas as to who or what the entity was which 'wrestled' with Jacob.

In the sermon, I touched upon a few of the likely candidates but, here I will just leave you with one possibility.  Was this entity either Esau himself, or Esau's guardian spirit, or perhaps just Jacob's anxiety overwhelming him on the eve of his reunion with his brother.  It is very worth noting the verses that follow so nearly the scripture verses for today.

4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10 Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favor.

Jacob is afraid of what was coming during his encounter with Esau, we are told this over and over in the verses leading up to this reunion.  His fear is well warranted, for he has cheated and betrayed his older brother and Esau himself threatened to kill Jacob.  But, the reality of the reunion is so vastly different than Jacob had felt it might be... Esau extends grace to Jacob and embraces Jacob before Jacob has a chance to beg for forgiveness or to even say a word to his brother.

I have to wonder about this action, a story so reminiscent of the story of the Prodigal Son, a story in which it's obvious that Esau is modeling God towards Jacob... Jacob even says so...

In our lives we worry about meeting God when our days end here in this world, but, I believe that both the story of the Prodigal Son and the story of the reunion of Jacob and Esau tell us quite clearly that no apprehension is warranted.  God wants to reconcile with us even more strongly and completely than Esau wanted to reconcile with his long lost brother.

Praise be to God!

Be a blessing to someone today!

In His Glory,
Roy

Genesis 32:3-32New International Version (NIV)

3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,[a] and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,[b] the group[c] that is left may escape.”

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[d] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[e] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”


31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[f] and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Footnotes:
a) Genesis 32:7 Or camps
b) Genesis 32:8 Or camp
c) Genesis 32:8 Or camp
d) Genesis 32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
e) Genesis 32:30 Peniel means face of God.
f) Genesis 32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel